Trying to make text float, before a wrecking ball wrecks it
I would recommend the following workflow for achieving the desired results:


Choose enable deactivation then start deactivated for your text objects. Also, ensure they are set to dynamic in your rigid body settings.
For your "wrecking ball", it needs to be set to animated as well as dynamic. Also, increase the mass of this object sufficiently. 





Now, at frame one, keyframe the starting point for your wrecking ball
object, then move along the timeline to your end point, and set a
location keyframe for your wrecking ball again.


Because start deactivated is enabled on your text objects, the rigid body collision does not take effect until an active object collides with it. After following these steps, you should be able to come up with something like this.



Also note that by changing the shape of your text objects collision you can find some interesting results. For my example, I ultimately chose to use box for my text instead of the default convex hull.